A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of dalytyphloplanida (platyhelminthes: rhabdocoela) reveals multiple escapes from the marine environment and origins of symbiotic relationships.

ABSTRACT: In this study we elaborate the phylogeny of Dalytyphloplanida based on complete 18S rDNA (156 sequences) and partial 28S rDNA (125 sequences), using a Maximum Likelihood and a Bayesian Inference approach, in order to investigate the origin of a limnic or limnoterrestrial and of a symbiotic lifestyle in this large group of rhabditophoran flatworms. The results of our phylogenetic analyses and ancestral state reconstructions indicate that dalytyphloplanids have their origin in the marine environment and that there was one highly successful invasion of the freshwater environment, leading to a large radiation of limnic and limnoterrestrial dalytyphloplanids. This monophyletic freshwater clade, Limnotyphloplanida, comprises the taxa Dalyelliidae, Temnocephalida, and most Typhloplanidae. Temnoce

SUBMITTER: Van Steenkiste N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3607561 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature